Make in India for the world

The way forward for Indian IVD industry

India’s leading in-vitro diagnostic company has been manufacturing and supplying diagnostic solutions for over 35 years now. Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd., has fortified its presence, being recognised as India’s top manufacturer and exporter of diagnostic instruments and reagents in over 100 countries. Infact, Transasia is the first Indian company to manufacture and export sophisticated, state of the art blood analysers and reagents.

The Indian healthcare sector, one of its fastest growing industries, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent to touch US$ 280 billion by 2020. Diagnostics forms an integral part of the healthcare sector as 70 per cent of the treatment decisions are based on lab results.

Over the past few years, In-Vitro Diagnostics market has been projecting substantial double digit growth. India, with its rich pool of resources, is being recognised as the next destination for establishing manufacturing set-ups.

Indian diagnostic industry –where we stand

The last decade has been very progressive for the Indian healthcare industry. Rural areas have seen an increase in the number of primary healthcare setups. Health drives are regularly conducted; as a result the awareness amongst the people has gone up considerably. Emphasis is laid on early detection and precise treatment. In the urban areas, there has been a boom in the number of centres offering quality healthcare. The Government has encouraged the setting up of secondary and tertiary healthcare centres. Continuous technological advancements in diagnostics and an increased healthcare awareness have made in-vitro diagnostic testing an indispensable tool in current medical practices.

The increase in the diagnosis of chronic lifestyle and genetic diseases, ageing population, and rising acceptance of personalised medicine drive the in-vitro diagnostic market growth. Preventive healthcare is gaining popularity, due to growing health consciousness, improved spending power and increased life expectancy. The emerging industry structure is heading towards providing healthcare services as an integrated comprehensive package rather than the traditional concept of providing healthcare infrastructure and reactive medical care.

Moreover, even patients today are well read and are key decision makers in their treatment process. As a result, now there is greater onus on the diagnostic setups to provide precise and quick results. This in turn has made the diagnostic product manufacturing companies to offer their products at competitive rates.

Need for ‘Make in India’

There has been a paradigm shift resulting in adoption of technology and automation. The need for accurate and quick results has led to the introduction of high end products for in-depth analysis. A host of Indian companies today, have shifted base from importing to manufacturing.

Transasia Bio–Medicals Ltd. has pioneered ‘Make in India’ as it began ‘Making in India’ in 1991. Today, Transasia is the No. IVD company in India with subsidiaries in 11 countries and sales network in over 100 countries across the globe.

The Government is supporting Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and other new initiatives for promoting the growth of the Indian IVD. The Government has encouraged Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as indigenous research thereby promoting the sector. There has been a rise in the number of players entering the segment and offering quality products and after sales services.

Pool of skilled manpower has always been India’s forte. And there is no dearth in the Indian IVD Industry either.

Our fast-paced and stable economy is encouraging foreign and domestic players to increase the investment in healthcare infrastructure.

Today, the diagnostic business is mainly based on technology. The drive or thrust for smaller, faster and easily accessible devices is increasing. Emerging markets have different needs with respect to test menus, technologies and operating procedures. Thus customised solutions need to be developed depending on the need. Indian companies with their R&D facilities have developed a range of good quality products for the local market amidst fierce competition.

Deterrents to Indigenous Technology

Today, the market is flooded with analysers from China, offering their services at cheap rates. The brain drain to the West acts as the biggest deterrent to promoting indigenous research and development. It is also difficult to change the mindset of clinicians to accept the ‘Made in India’ tag. Moreover, certain government policies need to be revisited to promote indigenous production.

Boost to innovation

Despite the Government introducing a host of policies for in-house production, there is still scope for more. The government and private players need to join hands to promote innovation at reasonable prices. The Government needs to initiate policies to encourage indigenous manufacturing. This can be done through availability of funds, land demarked for setting up manufacturing units, tax relaxation, encouraging research & development, etc.

Encouraging foreign players to set up manufacturing units in India can help further.

Indigenous manufacturing of medical equipments –Where we stand today

Indigenous manufacturing is picking up pace. At one point in time, the ratio of indigenous manufacturing to imports was just 5 per cent. However, tables have turned today. A lot many companies are now involved with in-house manufacturing. Indian companies have been manufacturing kits for blood grouping, serology, clinical chemistry, pregnancy detection, HIV detection and other rapid tests that are accepted globally. Today, imports of such products are negligible in finished form.

Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd. - Local for global

India’s leading in-vitro diagnostic company has been manufacturing and supplying diagnostic solutions for over 35 years now. Transasia Bio–Medicals Ltd., has fortified its presence, being recognised as India’s top manufacturer and exporter of diagnostic instruments and reagents in over 100 countries. Infact, Transasia is the first Indian company to manufacture and export sophisticated, state of the art blood analyzers and reagents.

Transasia started off, with marketing and after-sales service of a Japanese blood cell counter. It was during 1980s-90s, the machines were relatively expensive and affordable by only top hospitals. That is when Transasia started manufacturing them indigenously. The biggest challenge at that time was to counter the competition pouring in from the West. European and American manufactured products were widely accepted, because of their accuracy. So, it did take some time to prove the credibility of the indigenous instruments.

And today, Transasia is recognised as India’s Leading In-vitro Diagnostic Company. It has an installation base of over 45,000 instruments across India with a vast network of more than 150 service engineers, 350+ sales and marketing team, 14 zonal offices, and 350+ distributors.

Author Bio

The year was 1979 when Suresh Vazirani founded Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd. Numerous awards and recognitions from private, public and Government institutions have made the journey, from 1979 to 2014, a sweet success. Just recently Mr.Vazirani received the Global Growth Award 2014 by the World Economic Forum.